Friday, June 15, 2007

When I was a kid growing up, life was pretty clear-cut. There was school time, Church time, chores time, and playtime. You didn't overlap any of those times, because you had to focus on the task at hand. You played at playtime, not during school or Church.

Roland Martin sat down recently to interview Barack Obama for TV One (I believe it airs July 2nd, 2007). Martin asked the candidate to address the fact that he is perceived as "boring".

His answer was very controlled and reflective of his intelligence and education, explaining that he believes all behaviors have the appropriate forums. He knows about the importance of sound bites, but also knows when there is a need to be informative, which some might consider "boring."

Hi. Are we voting for the next American President, or the Next American Idol?

While this might be cute and entertaining, I'm hoping to God that it's not the future of American politics. I know that the national attention span seems to have narrowed down to about 40 seconds, and the news media have become nothing more than another leg of the entertainment industry. Paris Hilton gets 10 times as much media coverage as the War in Iraq, and we seem to be ok with that.

School is definitely in session folks, and it's time to turn off the cartoons and put the sippy-cups in the sink. We're living in some of the most turbulent times we've experienced in a very long time. We have important decisions to make, because the next one into the President's chair is going to have to fix a whole lot of broken things. This is the reality show with the biggest impact on all our lives.

It's very true that having a dynamic personality and tremendous speaking skills are assets we've always looked for in our leadership, and I think Obama possesses those traits in a big way. He might want to learn to condense his ideas a little better, but he has a lot of very good things to say. Education at times can be tedious and boring, but the ones who stick it out usually come out ahead. The same goes for folks who tough out the campaigns.

I'd hate to think that this election is going to be won by the candidate with the best sound bites. I hope to God that there are people who are going to be willing to spend at least as much time on the campaign as they do on the latest edition of "Survivor" or "America's Next Top Model". Having more people voting for American Idol than in the National Election really isn't something we need to brag about.